Respect in the short period of its existence has succeeded in establishing bases in deprived inner city constituencies like West Ham, where there are big working class and immigrant communities.
In the European election in Newham, Respect came second to Labour, obtaining 22% of the votes. The parliamentary campaign in West Ham focused on national as well as local issues.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq by the US and British armies, played a big part in the campaign where there are large numbers of Muslim voters.
Respect canvassers found deep anger on the doorstep and at the polling booths over the mass killings of civilians by the occupation forces. The point was driven home that huge amounts of money were spent on killing people in Iraq while there was no money to meet the needs of the people here.
Pensioners are living in poverty on the state pension and there is no finance to build affordable council housing, while the Labour Council is only offering repairs when linked to privatisation through the ALMO scheme. There is deep disillusionment among core Labour voters.
When an old couple were canvassed, the woman said she would not vote Labour again and her husband denounced the party for betraying the working class.
Leading trade union and labour movement figures in Newham, including a former leader of Newham Council, the chair of East Ham and West Ham Pensioners Association and the Chair of the East Ham London Underground branch of the RMT released a letter during the campaign calling on people to vote for Respect.
Racist remarks against immigrants and asylum seekers were passed on the doorstep and while these could be countered by canvassers, there was insufficient written material to reinforce our stand against racism and in defence of asylum seekers.
Hundreds of members and supporters of Respect from outside the constituency joined the members living in West Ham distributing leaflets, canvassing, touring the constituency in open-topped buses and acting as tellers at polling stations.
Lindsey German, the Respect candidate took nearly 20% of the votes, second to Labour, which was a credible result.
We have to consolidate the gains we have made in the campaign and build Respect in the constituency to present a more formidable challenge to New Labour in the future. Left vote shows it was the war wot swung it Susan Moore The Labour Left suffered less in this election than the majority of new Labour MPs. Socialist Campaign group members gained an average of 500 more votes than other Labour MPs, and the swing against them averaged only 4.4% compared with an average of 5.1% against other sitting Labour MPs.
In Norwich, a city with two MPs reflecting two very different wings of the Party, Home Secretary Charles Clarke represented the safe seat of Norwich South, while lan Gibson, Campaign Group rebel, was defending the more marginal Norwich North.
A swing of 7.1% cut Clarke's majority by over 5000 votes. Gibson, with a majority from 2001 of only 5863 votes would likely have faced a recount on an equal swing. However, voters returned Gibson with a near-equal